Coaches Can you teach body awareness?

[FormFreak]

Hello all. I know I had a problem with this when I was younger in gymnastics, and am still working on it today. I have a pretty young group of kids 5-7 year olds and some older. A lot of them have an extreme lack of body awareness when they're doing their skills. A lot of my kids have trouble with pointing their toes in cartwheels and jumps. I don't stress too much about that because it just seems to be a hard concept for them to get, but I have a few kids who could be really good if they had better body awareness. I have this one girl who has her bridge kick over, very close to her back hip circle, etc. Her form is terrible though. Her legs are bent in EVERYTHING she does. I show her how she looks, I try to use anything I can think of for her to keep her leg straight, but she just doesn't feel it. She's just unaware of what her legs are doing when she cartwheels, handstands, casts, tap swings, etc.

Is there a way to teach body awareness and in this 1 girls case a way to teach straight legs? I started having her do leg lift on the floor (don't know what they are called). She sits in a straddle with tight legs and lifts 1 leg up 10x or whatever I say and the other leg. I also do this same thing in pike position. Will this help any?

I tried doing side handstands and step out like a cartwheel against a wall. She keeps her leg straight through these drills but once I ask her to do a cartwheel she goes back to bent legs (or rather 1 bent leg).

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

For the cartwheel, I seem to get good results by asking them to 'squeeze these muscles' while tapping their legs before they start the skill.

Another trick that helps is to praise good form whenever you see it. So if the toes are pointed and the knees are bent, praise the toes and mention how straight legs would make it even better. If they know they will get positive attention for good form, they will think about it more.

 

[coachmolly]

I have found that for some kids it's a tough concept to get making for a frustrating time for the coach. Some improve with age and some still seem to struggle as they get older, so I haven't really noticed any particular pattern.
One thing I do for younger girls, or older kids who really just aren't getting it, is have them lie on their back on the ground and squeeze everything. I tell them to squeeze so tight that I can't pull their legs apart and keep testing and testing until they seem to get the idea. When they are squeezing I tell them to really feel all of their muscles squeezing and have them try to duplicate that when they go back to doing their skills. You can do something similar when they are in a front support on bars, in a handstand, whatever. Sometimes I will also have them lie on their back and squeeze, I grab their ankles and pull them off the ground. The goal is for them to stay in a straight line- no pike in the middle. These drills seem to work for some kids, but don't really seem to make much of a difference for others. Other than that, I'll do some shaping when I'm spotting and try to stop them in the correct position to get them to feel it. But it usually takes lots of practice to transfer to skills done independently.

ETA- Sometimes, usually with slightly older kids, the problem isn't that they can't control their body, but that they just don't think about it enough. So if they are sloppy turn after turn and don't seem to be making corrections, I will make them stop and really encourage them to take some time while waiting for their turn to think about what they are doing. Think about the corrections they were given on their last turn and what they are going to try to do the next time around.

 

[FormFreak]

One thing I do for younger girls, or older kids who really just aren't getting it, is have them lie on their back on the ground and squeeze everything. I tell them to squeeze so tight that I can't pull their legs apart and keep testing and testing until they seem to get the idea. When they are squeezing I tell them to really feel all of their muscles squeezing and have them try to duplicate that when they go back to doing their skills. You can do something similar when they are in a front support on bars, in a handstand, whatever. Sometimes I will also have them lie on their back and squeeze, I grab their ankles and pull them off the ground. The goal is for them to stay in a straight line- no pike in the middle. These drills seem to work for some kids, but don't really seem to make much of a difference for others. Other than that, I'll do some shaping when I'm spotting and try to stop them in the correct position to get them to feel it. But it usually takes lots of practice to transfer to skills done independently.

ETA- Sometimes, usually with slightly older kids, the problem isn't that they can't control their body, but that they just don't think about it enough. So if they are sloppy turn after turn and don't seem to be making corrections, I will make them stop and really encourage them to take some time while waiting for their turn to think about what they are doing. Think about the corrections they were given on their last turn and what they are going to try to do the next time around.

Thanks... I actually do all of that with them, but I probably should do it more often. I only do it about every 4 practices or so. Doing it every class may get them to understand it better.

 

[FormFreak]

For the cartwheel, I seem to get good results by asking them to 'squeeze these muscles' while tapping their legs before they start the skill.

I do do that with some of my kids. Some of them understand and some of them don't =/

 

[FormFreak]

This has nothing to do with cheer. Didn't mean to categorize that =)

 

[CoachGoofy]

Sometimes kids get overwhelmed with a big pile of corrections & then can't make ANY of them. So I keep it to "fix ONE thing, and wouldn't it be cool if we could tell what it is by watching?" (also I only give one or 2 corrections at a time. That means less ohgoshIsuck anxiety).

My favorite general straight legs drill is to have them sit in a straddle & squeeze both legs off the floor at once for 10 seconds, three times, & then find the position.

We do a lot of feel the difference things too. They kind of love that i can bounce them on the TT and even the rod floor and spring floor if they squeeze, & that's useful for a few other concepts too. I hold onto their shoulders or waists and bounce bounce bounce.